2.223 What Doth It Profit... If He Receive Not The Gift

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Welcome to an exciting new week. I say exciting because we're going to dive into Doctrine and Covenants Section 88, which is huge, just so you know.

It's a monster, but it is amazing. And then we're going to read Alma chapters 48 through 52. I can't believe we're almost to the end of the week.

The Book of Alma inside the Book of Mormon. Oh my goodness, it's going so quickly. Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 is so fascinating to me because we just finished last week talking about this prophecy that Joseph Smith had about the coming of what we interpret as the American Civil War and then all of the wars being unleashed around the world.

And I think it's interesting there because when you look at this, Section 87, which is where we get that prophecy, the Bible says that the Lord is going to bring a lot of war and that the earth is going to be in tumult. We tend to focus on that news. We tend to say that remember how the Lord says that everything is going to be awful and wars and rumors of wars and lots of wars and fighting and wars.

And then we tend to forget that Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 came along two days after that revelation. So December 25th was Section 87 and then December 27th and 28th, as well as a little bit on January 3rd, we get Section 88. And it's one of the biggest sections in Doctrine and Covenants, if not the biggest, verse-wise. 141 verses.

And what does the Lord call it? Well, Joseph Smith calls this section "the olive leaf plucked from the tree of paradise", the Lord's message of peace to us. So he spends eight verses talking about the chaos that's going to come through war and destruction and rumors of war.

And then he spends 141 verses talking to us about peace and the peace that can come from it. Section 88 is one to be studied and read and seen from the perspective of the Lord giving us promises of peace. So I'm excited this week to dive into it because as I read through it, I see sections and I go, oh, I want to share that one.

I want to share that one. And there's just not enough time to share the things I want to share. So that then puts a prioritization on me.

It makes me put on a filter here. It makes me put on my glasses and say, which one of these do I really want to collect inside of savory salt? And that takes us to our verse for today in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 88, verse 33.

Verse 33 is the middle of the Lord explaining to us that really when it comes to the kingdoms of glory, whether it be celestial, terrestrial, telestial, whatever it may be, that really one of the determining factors there is our ability to choose to follow the laws of that kingdom. And then he gives this verse in 33 that really kind of gave me a little bit different perspective of the blessings that come from the Lord. It says this, For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him and he received not the gift?

Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. Now, this was an interesting verse for me because I thought I went to like Christmases and birthdays of my children. And this is not a call out to any of my girls.

Right. It's just an interesting perspective here. And perhaps maybe some of you parents or maybe some of you that have given gifts are going to come from the same viewpoint that I am here.

Have you ever given a gift to someone that you were so sure it was just gonna be an amazing gift? They were gonna be so excited and they open it and they're kind of like, yeah, that's cool. And they put it aside and continue opening their gifts.

Have you ever experienced that? Maybe you've been one of those openers before where you opened a gift and you were like, okay, that's that's kind of cool. The person giving the gift is like, oh man, they missed it.

They missed how cool the gift is. I think what the Lord is trying to tell us here is, 'I have given you celestial laws, and those celestial laws are gifts.' And if you don't want to receive those gifts, that's okay, because you're just not going to understand. You're not going to rejoice in the gift that has been given to you.

Same with terrestrial, same with telestial. My friends, what gifts have we been given by the Lord that we seemingly disregard or view as not awesome? Because Verse 33 is a reminder for us to think through the gifts that the Lord gives us, see them for what they are, and rejoice in them, receive them.

I'm so grateful. One of them that I am so grateful for is I live literally down the street from a temple of God. And I've made it a priority in my life.

I've tried to do the best that I can to go to the temple on a weekly basis because that's a gift from the Lord to me. I live close enough that I can attend often and I want to do that in my life. What gifts do you have that you've been blessed with from the Lord?

Hey, understand the celestial gifts around us. I love Section 88 and I'm so excited to spend some time this week inside of the verses of it. I hope that you and I can profit from the gifts we've been given by the Lord and truly see them for what they are.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.